Monthly Archives: June 2016

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Chances are slim to none that your teeth are 100% perfect. If you made it through the childhood years and sports activities and managed not to chip, otherwise damage or lose a tooth or two along the way, please consider yourself lucky. The teeth you offered the Tooth Fairy in exchange for loose change do not count – we are talking about your permanent teeth.

Regular visits to the dentist help to maintain good dental hygiene and regular check-ups by the dentist and visits to your dental hygienist will keep your teeth healthy and strong and plaque free. You might have been lucky enough to have a stellar smile without the need of braces, but, did you know that once your pesky wisdom teeth decide to put in an appearance, that their emergence can wreak havoc with that beautiful smile? Well more about wisdom teeth later.Continue reading →

You may gaze into the mirror and simply see a set of pearly whites grinning back at you, but those teeth are a little more complex in their composition – more than you probably have ever thought about.

When you think of it, your teeth are challenged every day to withstand icy cold or steaming hot drinks, or to crunch down and pulverize every piece of food that you put into your mouth. We’ve had our current teeth since we outgrew our baby teeth and got the permanent set, and, for some, old cavities or dental issues forced us to get crowns so that our old metal fillings were not so unsightly.Continue reading →

If you see a dentist or dental hygienist on a routine basis, they no doubt give you an oral cancer check. This is commonplace now since over 40,000 Americans are diagnosed with oral and throat cancers yearly. Sadly, the five-year survival rate of those diagnosed is only slightly more than 64 percent. By being proactive, you and your dentist can detect cancer and treat it so that major health problems are alleviated later. So thank your dentist next time when the oral cancer test is complete as he or she might just save your life!Continue reading →

The scientific name for bad breath is halitosis and the biggest culprits for creating this malady are onions and garlic. This is not only due to their strong aroma, but because they both contain sulfuric compounds that get absorbed into your bloodstream, enabling a secondary odiferous wave to reach your lungs, where it eventually escapes through your mouth. So, not only do you have a strong aftertaste where mouthwash or mints fail miserably to rid your mouth of the odor, but, in the case of garlic, once it is absorbed it continues to emit a bitter scent from your pores. Many people simply use garlic to enhance their food and others take garlic pills for their antioxidant powers and to help thwart heart disease and cancer.

Bad breath can also be caused by aromatic spices, stinky sausages and ethnic foods that will leave you with dragon breath; even red wine can be problematic, leaving you with a pungent odor in your mouth. But, bad breath from ingesting certain food or drink generally goes away in a day or two, whereas bad breath which is continual and cannot be masked by mints or mouthwash, is of special concern. Your first stop as you play detective to uncover the source of the bad breath is to see a top dentist in Maplewood to determine if you have gum disease, or perhaps, a decaying tooth. If that is not the reason, the next stop is an ear, nose and throat specialist (or ENT) to see if tonsillitis or a sinus condition might be the culprit. A dentist in Maplewood NJ can do diagnostic tests to locate the cause of your bad breath. If there are no issues determined by either specialist, then you must delve further to determine the cause of the problem which may be “stomach breath”.Continue reading →

Every time you turn around the headlines are screaming about another food recall. E-coli, listeria, e-coli and avian flu issues have us rethinking where we dine or what we put into our grocery carts and into our mouths. The Chipotle e-coli issues leave us less likely to be craving Mexican food at that establishment, even though they are cleared of contamination issues and back in business again. We may want to eat healthy by eating more produce, but then we worry about listeria-contaminated lettuce or consuming supposedly “pre-washed produce” like bagged coleslaw or lettuce, only to find a large manufacturer like Dole is sweeping them off the shelves in a massive recall. Even a treat like ice cream was contaminated with listeria causing Blue Bell, a manufacturer established way back in 1907, to halt production of this frozen treat while they determined the source of contamination. The avian flu has us scrambling to find organic eggs or just doing without eggs altogether.Continue reading →

College life is a dramatic change from the comfy convenience of living at home. Even if you were involved in athletics or had a part-time job, chances are you had three nourishing meals, a clean bed and your laundry done on a regular basis. You got your homework done before the weekend so you had free time. Unless you continue to live at home while attending college, you are in for a rude awakening.

Big adjustments

The biggest adjustment might be living away from home for the first time, and, in general, dormitory life and sharing a room with strangers. Even if you shared a room with a sibling, it’s just not the same. Strangers coming and going all the time, and their friends as well, and so on. Sometimes you need to get away from it all and the library may become your sanctuary – that’s a good place to go to catch up on your studies and chill out a bit.Continue reading →

Nothing saps your energy and keeps you from feeling your best like a head cold, no matter what the time of year. Colds can come at any time, and flu season typically runs from October through May, peaking in February. You must be proactive to help your kids understand how to develop healthy habits.

As soon as your child is old enough to understand that “germs are not our friend”, you should encourage your child to do the following:Continue reading →